1927,
March 31 -- Césario Estrada Chávez is born on the small farm near Yuma,
Ariz. that his grandfather homesteaded in the 1880s.

1937 -- After
César's father, Librado, is forced from his farm, the Chávez family becomes
migrant workers first working in Oxnard ,
California .

1942 -- César quits
school after the eighth grade and works in the fields full time to help support
his family.

1944 -- He joins
the U.S.
Navy during World War II and serves in the western Pacific. Just before
shipping out to the Pacific, César is arrested in a segregated
Delano , Calif.
movie theater for sitting in the "whites only"section.

Late 1940s -- He begins
studying the social teachings of the Catholic Church.

1952 -- Community
organizer Fred Ross discovers the young farm worker laboring in apricot
orchards outside San Jose ,
Calif. , and recruits him into the Community
Service Organization (CSO).

1952-1962 --
Together with Fred Ross, César organizers 22 CSO chapters across
California in the 1950s.
Under César's leadership, CSO becomes the most militant and effective Latino
civil rights group of its day. It helps Latinos become citizens, registers them
to vote, battles police brutality and presses for paved streets and other
barrio improvements.

1962, March 31 --
On his birthday, César resigns from CSO, moves his wife and eight small
children to Delano and dedicates himself full-time to organizing farm workers.

1962, Sept. 30 --
The first convention of César's National Farm Workers Association (NFWA) is
convened in Fresno ,
Calif.

1962-1965 - -Often
baby-sitting his youngest children as he drives to dozens of farm worker towns,
César painstakingly builds up the membership of his infant union.

March-April 1966 --
César and a band of strikers embark upon a 340-mile Peregrinacion (or
Pilgrimage) from Delano to the steps of the
state Capitol in Sacramento
to draw national attention to the suffering of farm workers. During the march
and after a four-month boycott, Schenley Vineyards negotiates an agreement with
NFWA--the first genuine union contract between a grower and farm workers' union
in U.S.
history.

Spring-summer 1966 --
A boycott of the struck DiGiorgio Fruit Corp. forces the giant grape grower to
agree to an election among its workers. The company brings in the Teamsters
Union to oppose César's NFWA. The NFWA and the Filipino
American AWOC merge to form the United Farm Workers and the union affiliates
with the AFL-CIO, the national labor federation. DiGiorgio workers vote for the
UFW.

1967 -- The UFW
strikes the Giumarra Vineyards Corp., California 's
largest table grape grower. In response to a UFW boycott, other grape growers
allow Giumarra to use their labels. So the UFW begins a boycott of all
California table grapes.
Meanwhile, strikes continue against grape growers in the state.

1967-1970 --
Hundreds of grape strikers fan out across North America
to organize an international grape boycott. Millions of Americans rally to La
Causa, the farm workers' cause.

February-March 1968 --
César fasts for 25 days to rededicate his movement to nonviolence. U.S. Sen.
Robert F. Kennedy joins 8,000 farm workers and supporters at a mass where César
breaks his fast, calling the weakened farm labor leader "one of the heroic
figures of our time."

Summer 1970 -- To
keep the UFW out of California lettuce and
vegetable fields, most Salinas
Valley growers signed contracts with the Teamsters
Union . Some 10,000
Central Coast
farm workers respond by walking out on strike. César calls for a nationwide
boycott of lettuce.

1970, Dec. 10-24 --
César is jailed in Salinas, Calif. for refusing to obey a court order to stop
the boycott against Bud Antle lettuce. Coretta Scott King, widow of Dr. Martin
Luther King, Jr., and Ethel Kennedy, widow of Robert Kennedy, visit César in
jail.

1971 -- The UFW
moves from Delano to its new headquarters at
La Paz in Keene ,
Calif. , southeast of
Bakersfield . With table and wine grape contracts,
and some agreements covering vegetable workers, UFW membership grows to around
80,000.

1972 -- The UFW is
chartered as an independent affiliate by the AFL?CIO; it becomes the United
Farm Workers of America ,
AFL-CIO (UFW).

1972, May 11-June 4 --
César fasts for 25 days in Phoenix over a just-passed Arizona law banning the
right of farm workers to strike or boycott.

Spring-summer 1973 --
When the UFW's three-year table grape contracts came up for renewal, the growers
instead signed contracts with the Teamsters without an election or any
representation procedure. That sparks a bitter three-month strike by grape
workers in California 's Coachella and
San Joaquin valleys. Thousands of strikers are arrested
for violating anti-picketing injunctions, hundreds are beaten, dozens are shot
and two are murdered. In response to the violence, César calls off the strike
and begins a second grape boycott.

1973-1975 --
According to a nationwide 1975 Louis Harris poll, 17 million Americans are
boycotting grapes. Many are also boycotting lettuce and Gallo wine after winery
workers strike the mammoth Modesto, Calif.-based producer.

June 1975 -- After
Jerry Brown becomes governor, the boycott convinces growers to agree to a state
law guaranteeing California
farm workers the right to organize and bargain with their employers. César gets
the landmark Agricultural Labor Relations Act through the state Legislature.

September 1975- January
1976 -- Hundreds of elections are held. The UFW wins the majority of the
elections in which it participates. The Agricultural Labor Relations Board
(ALRB), which enforces the law, briefly shuts down after running out of money
and pro-grower lawmakers refuse to approve an emergency appropriation.

Mid-to-late 1970s --
The UFW continues winning elections and signing contracts with growers. In
1977, the Teamsters Union signs a
"jurisdictional" agreement with the UFW and agrees to leave the
fields. In 1978, the UFW calls off its boycotts of grapes, lettuce and Gallo
wine.

January-October 1979 - - In
a bid to win decent wages and benefits, the UFW strikes several major lettuce
and vegetable growers up and down the state. Rufino Contreras, 27-year old
striker, is shot to death in an Imperial Valley
lettuce field by grower foremen.

September 1979 --
After a strike and boycott, the UFW wins its demands for a significant pay
raise and other contract improvements from Sun Harvest, the nation's largest
lettuce producer. Other growers also soon settle.

Early 1980s -- With
election victories and contract negotiations, the number of farm workers
protected by UFW contracts grows to about 45,000.

1982 -- Republican
George Deukmejian is elected California
governor with $1 million in grower campaign contributions.

1983-1990 --
Deukmejian begins shutting down enforcement of the state's historic farm labor
law. Thousands of farm workers lose their UFW contracts. Many are fired and
blacklisted. Fresno-area dairy worker Rene Lopez, 19, is shot to death by
grower agents after voting in a 1983 union election. César declares a third
grape boycott in 1984.

1986 -- César kicks
off the "Wrath of Grapes" campaign to draw public attention to the
pesticide poisoning of grape workers and their children.

July-August 1988 --
At age 61, Chávez conducts his last--and longest--public fast for 36 days in
Delano to call attention
to farm workers and their children stricken by pesticides.

Late 1980s-early 1990s --
After recovering from his fast, César continues pressing the grape boycott and
aiding farm workers who wish to organize.

Spring-summer 1992 --
Working with UFW First Vice President Arturo Rodriguez, César leads vineyard
walkouts in the Coachella and San Joaquin
valleys. As a result, grape workers win their first industry-wide pay hike in
eight years.

1993, April 23 --César Chávez dies peacefully in his sleep
at the modest home of a retired San Luis, Ariz. farm worker while defending the
UFW against a multi-million dollar lawsuit brought against the union by a large
vegetable grower.

March-April 1994 --
On the first anniversary of César's passing, Arturo Rodriguez leads a 343-mile
march retracing César's historic 1966 trek from Delano
to Sacramento .
Some 17,000 farm workers and supporters gather on the state Capitol steps to
help kick off a new UFW field organizing and contract negotiating campaign.

1994-2000 --
Since the new UFW organizing drive began in 1994, farm workers vote for the UFW
in 18 straight union elections and the UFW signs 24 new--or
first-time--agreements with growers. UFW membership rises from around 20,000 in
1993 to more than 27,000. The César Chávez-founded union organizes and bargains
on behalf of major rose, mushroom, strawberry, wine grape and lettuce and
vegetable workers in California ,
Florida and Washington
state.

2003 -- The
U.S.
Postal Service issues a commemorative stamp with César Chávez's image.

Your message has been successfully submitted and would be delivered to recipients shortly.